Monday, June 24, 2013

I came back to Thailand for my second year of retirement
right at the beginning of the hottest season of the year (beginning April).
This year, coming from California where I had to wear a light jacket most of
the time and even had to beg my older son Dasnot to surf because the water (Pacific
Ocean, California side) was so damn cold, I loved coming back to where I didn’t
have to wear a shirt or shoes!

(laying in the hammock at our 15 rai rice farm near the temple)

Unlike last year, this year I did not need to resort to
fans, mid-day beer, or even frequent showers – although those always are worth
the time to take.

You remember the ab nam routine, right? Even with a
shower head and hot water in the new bathroom, I
prefer the old plastic pan with cold water dumped over my head; maybe up to ten
times a session to cool myself off, which includes splashes to certain critical
areas to enhance cleanliness.

I guess you could say I’ve adapted to the heat of the Thai
countryside and… it fits.

Now, when villagers ask me:

“Hawn, baw?” (hot, no?)

My reply is usually:

“Hawn nit-noy.” (hot a little)

They always laugh at this, because when the heat is on, it’s
hot for everyone!

Monday, June 17, 2013

The scorpions
were dealt with right away. They like dark crevices, so I filled-in cracks to
our cement pad and removed debris from around the exterior of the house.
Whenever I overturned something and saw one, it was dispatched mercilessly,
including the time I chopped a mother with all her babies on back.

Geckos
remain a feature of the home and I have no problem with them, even though they
sound like they’re laughing at me, at times. They actually help with insect
control. Same way with the Tokays who actually fascinate me.

When I began my retirement in Northeastern
Thailand, the field
rats were my biggest problem. My wife didn’t like them, either, but being
the good Kamattan
Buddhist she is, she didn’t want me to kill them. I hated having them in
such close proximity and they would actually wake me up at night cuz there were
so many of them. I decided to wage a not-so-secret war on the Noo.

I’ve done some trapping in my time and learned quickly how
to outsmart the rats. I was always careful to dispose of their bodies when my
wife was not around. By the time I’d won the war, around twenty Noo had
been added to my negative karma.

I figured it was either us or them.

More lizards are living on our home property than last year,
especially the thin,
fast runners. This is probably due to my prohibiting the neighbors from
hunting them, last year. Their movements are so precise they fascinate me almost
as much as the tokays.

More birds
are with us, now and more variety, too. Not sure why that is, but it’s probably
because of the growing number of fruit trees we have that are being better
cared for than before we bought the land. These include jack fruit (mak mee),
mango, bell apple and cherimoya.

The neighborhood chickens still traverse the
property. Their numbers are in the thirties, including chicks. The roosters
provide some amusement for my friends in America, when I am gaming with them
from the other side of the planet (BF3 on the PS3).

Dogs have
become less of a problem and that’s mostly due to them having better pickings
at the family farm, the family house and elsewhere.

Lastly, an increase in snakes
has caused Thip and I to be more cautious and observant of the grounds and
house. We want to keep those guys away from where we abide!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Charcoal kilns are everywhere in the Isaan, but they're mostly tended to by the older folk. Here's a well-written description of a falangexpat named Borey and Uncle Som and the charcoal kiln Som had going:

Friday, June 7, 2013

My wife loves them; especially here in the Isaan where the
stores’ air conditioning can provide much needed relief on a blistering hot
day.

My oldest son and I have opposed “big boxes” (named after
the structures built to house the big chain store) at various times in our
lives, mostly due to the tendency of these businesses to drive out smaller,
more indigenous, retail shops; what sometimes are referred to as “mom and pop shops”.

I think the Big Boxes have their place as long as they don’t
directly compete with other, smaller businesses. For instance, when I neede to
set up a home LAN
(local area network; home wi-fi), I shopped at the new Tesco-Lotus (locals call it
“Low-tut”). They had a better variety of models to choose from and a return
policy that was fair. Many stores in Thailand will not take an item back
once purchased, no matter if it’s brand new, you bought it that day or the day
before, and have a receipt. To me, that’s just bad business.

Remember when I wrote about the “building boom”
going on? Our village is only about “seven clicks” (seven kilometers) from Nong
Bua and only a couple of clicks away from the nearest Big Box. Consequently, a
lot of the building taking place in our village is intended for housing of
workers who will staff the Big Boxes. Basically, they are single room/bathroom
apartments in unites of 5-to-8 clustered together here in the countryside.

I guess the presumption is that a lot of out-of-town labor
will staff the Boxes. Presumably, also, this labor force will be young and
single, or at least without children.

It remains to be seen whether young renters will want to be
so far from the lights of the city, even if they are only using the apartments
as sleeping pads. I certainly have my doubts about the viability of these
rental units spouting up like crazy, not only from an economic standpoint
(after all, I want our villagers to be successful), but also a cultural one. If
these apartments do get rented out, how’s the character of the village going to
change with so many young people moving in and out, who we don’t really know?